FIREFIGHTERS OPEN HEARTS TO YOUNG GIRL

Lindsey Weinhandl this year put aside a family tradition--the annual gift of a Barbie doll on Christmas--for a girl who lost her only living parent and her home in a fire last week in Hanover Park.

Weinhandl, 18, looked under the Christmas tree after learning her father and his fellow firefighters were planning to shower 9-year-old Lea Walberg with gifts during a Christmas party Saturday afternoon. Rather than keeping the doll for herself, she donated it toward the party.

"I thought, `You know, since (Lea) collected Barbie dolls, and everything that's happened to her, she needed it more than I did.' I thought this would cheer her up," said Weinhandl, a senior at Glenbard West High School.

Weinhandl and her parents, including Hanover Park Fire Protection District firefighter Ralph Weinhandl, gathered Saturday with about 40 other firefighters and family members at Station 1 for a children's-style party. The party included punch, cookies and hundreds of gifts, among them a bicycle and 5-month-old schnauzer.

Many of the men and women were with the emergency crews that responded late Tuesday to a house fire that killed Lea's father, her only living parent, and destroyed the family home in northwest suburban Hanover Park.

Though firefighters know that a party cannot begin to ease the girl's profound loss, they hoped the gifts could at least make her holiday a little better.

"I feel giving gifts to someone who has lost their mother a few years ago, and now her father, you can't give them enough gifts," Ralph Weinhandl said.

Lea lost her mother, Sandra, in 1997 to cancer.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but fire officials said they have traced its origin to an electrical cord in a basement laundry room of the wooden trilevel home that the family moved into about six years ago.

Initially, firefighters believed that Lea and her father, Randal Walberg, 51, a former mechanic, were both in the home. But emergency crews soon learned that Lea, a 4th grader at nearby Laurel Hill Elementary School, had been in Bensenville visiting her grandmother.

Since the blaze, Lea has been staying with relatives and a guardian.

By Wednesday, Lea's neighbors, friends and even strangers were rallying around her, donating toys, clothes and money.

Firefighters found out how generous their neighbors are when they decided to organize a last-minute party for the girl on Christmas.

Her older siblings say Lea hasn't talked much about her loss, but they noted she has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of sympathy.

"I think she's really happy to be around us, to be around her friends," said sister Amara Duna, 27. "She seems really content."

Lea's guardian, Karen Pascholk, said that Lea hasn't broken down and cried, but there are subtle signs she is struggling. "She said, `Please don't drive by my house. I don't want to see it,' " Pascholk recalled.

Besides the gifts, which came from businesses and residents in addition to the firefighters, a trust fund has been established for Lea. Donations may be sent to First Eagle National Bank, in care of the Lea Walberg Donation Fund, 1040 W. Lake St., Hanover Park, IL 60103.